haniblog

We’ve been using Front Row on my Mac Mini at home for the past couple of years. I’ve had to add lots of codecs to the system, most importantly Perian. Even though it’s a original Core Duo 1.66GHz box it struggled to play 1080i material and completely failed with 1080p. Until Plex, that is.

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Please forgive the blog for the next day or so. I’ll be trying to dress it differently until I find a theme I’m happy with.

Today happens to be my 40th birthday. It also happens to be the end of British Summer Time. Technically, it means my birthday lasts for 25 hours!

So how am I celebrating this year? Gillian and I are on a strict no–food, no–drink diet in an attempt to bring our weight under control. So I’ve turned into a monk. A monk with lots of toys.

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I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now. We’ve got at least two old-ish Sony Ericsson K800i’s gathering dust (and scratches) in the bottom of a gadget box. There is also the first generation 8GB iPhone I upgraded recently which my lovely daughter uses as an Abba–powered jukebox. Read the rest of this entry »

This is xkcd. I’ve been subscribing to the RSS feed for the last year or so. It is hilarious in a very geeky way, which obviously appeals to me. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in July we were working on a job for Hardys Wine called ‘One Love’. The premise was to see vines and grapes grow in smooth time-lapse by using CG plants. Richard Nelson supervised the shoot in Australia and did all the CG R&D when he got back. His team then camera tracked the shots, animated, lit and rendered all the passes for me to put together in Flame.

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100,000 people turned up to hear Barack Obama speak in Missouri today (Saturday). I wish our politicians had 1/100th the draw this man has.

America, you have found the presidential candidate you’ve been waiting for.

Via DF’s twitter feed

Now here’s a wonderful device. In the words of one of my colleagues, “This is by far the best thing I have ever bought.” I couldn’t agree more.

I bought our iPhones on the night they were released here in London (6:02pm as I recall). I remember how enthralled I was with it. The touch screen flicking action even skewed my interaction with my MacBook Pro! I kept on wanting to flick the touchpad upwards to scroll down! Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I read the hype before an Apple launch (who doesn’t?) and it leaves me less than enthused. “I’ve got a MacBook Pro. The specs seem very similar. Not too sure about that two-tone look. Hmm…”

Then I get home, switch my laptop on all my arguments dissolve. “Wow! It’s much faster! And thinner! ONE block of aluminium?! No rubber edges? That two-tone look is fantastic!”

Okay, I want one now.